Auschwitz – Death Block

Auschwitz – Death Block

Sacrum

Sunday, 23 June 2019

The Death Block No. 11 was the central camp arrest, where persons suspected of the involvement in conspiracy or of an attempt to escape were imprisoned. In connection with the total annihilation of the Jews, attempts to kill people with the use of Zyklon B were carried out here. In the building of the B Block, there is the cell of St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, who gave his life to save another inmate, the father of the family, Franciszek Gajowniczek. The starved Franciscan was eventually killed with an injection of phenol and his body was burned in the crematorium. In the basement of the Block, visitors may see the camp detention cells, on the ground floor – the room where ad hoc trials were conducted and rooms for SS men. Also, St. Edyta Stein died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Edyta Stein was from a Jewish family, in 1922 she was baptised in the Catholic Church, and in 1933 joined the Carmelite Convent, adopting the name of Saint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross. She was a German philosopher. Arrested by the gestapo in the Netherlands, she was transported to Auschwitz. She died in a gas chamber, ca. 9.08.1942, her body was burned in the camp crematorium.

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